Our unofficial review of pop culture trends in 2012

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If you go by national news stories, the year 2012 was tumultuous, inspiring, heartbreaking, exasperating and many times head-shaking. We can say the same for some of 2012's pop culture trends that bubbled up on the Web.But many provided some much-needed levity.As we prepare to welcome 2013, here's a roundup of hot trends, popular searches and other trivia you likely encountered online in 2012.

5 memorable Internet trends

A variety of viral memes are touted in top 10 lists for the year, but these five seemed particularly funny.

? McKayla Maroney is not impressed. The American gymnast's disdainful face, caught in a photo when she won the silver medal during the summer Olympics, has been added to numerous pictures and mimicked many times over.

? Pet shaming. You've seen the photos: Rover posing with a note from his owner sharing the dog's misdeed such as eating a closet full of shoes. Numerous tumblr accounts and websites including Petshaming.net feature dogs and cats with messages about their unfortunate behavior.

? The "ridiculously photogenic guy," a.k.a. Guy Zeddie Little. The runner's handsome mug has shown up in numerous Internet posts. He was originally photographed rather randomly while running in the 2012 Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, S.C., and became a Web sensation.

? Photobombing. You've seen it - heck, you've probably done it. This is when a group of friends or family smiling for the camera later finds an unexpected addition to their photo due to someone popping in - usually on purpose - from behind.

? Texts from Hillary. A photo taken for Time magazine, showing a serious Hillary Clinton sending a text on her phone, spawned numerous photo pairings with imagined conversations between Hillary and everyone from Jon Stewart to Justin Bieber, particularly captured in the Tumblr blog textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com.

5 high-profile celebrity breakups

These oft-publicized couples split up in 2012.

? Justin Bieber & Selena Gomez (on-again, off-again)

? Heidi Klum & Seal

? Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes

? Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (now back together)

? Johnny Depp & Vanessa Paradis

5 phrases made official

These five trendy words and phrases are among those added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in 2012:

? bucket list - "a list of things that one has not done before but wants to do before dying"

? craft beer - "a specialty beer produced in limited quantities"

? man cave - "a room or space (as in a basement) designed according to the taste of the man of the house to be used as his personal area for hobbies and leisure activities"

? sexting - "the sending of sexually explicit messages or images by cellphone"

5 people we'll miss

Among those who died in 2012 were five whose contributions live on:

? Singer Andy Williams

? Singer Whitney Houston

? Astronaut Neil Armstrong

? Singer Etta James

? Actor Andy Griffith

5 most Google-searched athletes

? Jeremy Lin

? Peyton Manning

? Michael Phelps

? Ryan Lochte

? Tim Tebow

5 hit parody-inspiring songs and videos

The songs we can't get out of our heads are often the most parodied. Here are five that seemed to particularly inspire creative license.

? PSY's "Gangnam Style." The original video has logged more than a record-breaking 1 billion views and inspired numerous take-offs, including some by political figures and one by the Kansas farming Peterson brothers whose previous parody of LFMO's "Sexy and I Know It" became a Web sensation.

? LFMO's "Sexy and I Know It." The music and lyrics of this dance-friendly tune have been re-made many times with humorous results.

? Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me, Maybe." From the Jimmy Fallon performance with Jepsen using classroom instruments to the American Olympic swim team creating a lip-synced video, something about this catchy pop dance tune kept listeners on speed-dial.

? Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know." The mournful alternative genre tune became the basis for parodies about everything from politics to sports, video games and even "Star Wars."

? Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend." The Bieb's hit inspired several parodies including one that became a meme in itself with more than 1 million views: "Super Creepy Justin Bieber 'Boyfriend' Parody."

5 most Google-searched songs

No wonder four of these five inspired so many parodies.

? "Boyfriend" by Justin Bieber

? "Gangnam Style" by PSY

? "Call Me, Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen

? "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye

? "Some Nights" by Fun.

5 top grossing movies

According to a story from USA Today, 2012 will mark the film industry's highest grossing year on record. Several websites list the following as the five top-grossing movies of 2012:

? "Marvel's The Avengers" - $623 million

? "The Dark Knight Rises" - $448 million

? "The Hunger Games" - $408 million

? "Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" - $282 million

? "Skyfall" - $280 million

Top 5 trending topics on Google

According to Google, these five topics were searched the most in 2012

? Singer Whitney Houston

? Hurricane Sandy

? Election 2012

? "Hunger Games"

? Jeremy Lin

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Our unofficial review of pop culture trends in 2012

If you go by national news stories, the year 2012 was tumultuous, inspiring, heartbreaking, exasperating and many times head-shaking.2012 Rewind